Does your office have a canteen?

[Nrwwtoan]

If it does, is the food any good?

We have kitchens with microwave etc but also a fully subsidised restaurant where all food is organic, locally sourced and fresh. It is truly amazing

My company shares an office with a Japanese bank, and they run the canteen. So we have amazing Japanese food every day! Slightly subsidised I think, but not cheap.

I used to be a cook at a restaurant and we always had a staff meal before service.

Normura?

Yup, 3 free meals a day and the food is really amazing. Free drinks and snacks also. Tech sector.

No 😂 we don’t even have milk in the staff fridge, unless you count the one vegans special supply of oat milk. Coffee and tea provided but no milk. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But then again, our office kitchen had to close for a week last year because cockroaches were literally crawling out of the tap. 😳 And the year before that, for about 3 weeks, because the tap became electrified and was shocking people.

I work at one of the top universities in the UK and the world where there is plenty of money to go around for infrastructure and facilities.

What do you do at the university?

I have found working in many different places on site is that nearly everyone thinks their canteen is awful no matter how good it is.

I've worked in some places where the catering is frankly amazing but people still moan about it.

Another thing I would say for anyone high up in business that may be reading is beware of shutting down your canteen. Canteens are not just places where people go on about football and Love Island. Actually quite a bit of work business is discussed there over lunch, often between people who would not otherwise meet up.

Positively drooling here 😋

I definitely notice this. Nice canteens get colleagues sitting together and chatting about work. Badly maintained canteens get people bitching about them and making a dozen external coffee runs a day.

Sounds similar to ours. The last meeting we had, rather than put on sandwiches they gave everyone a voucher for £6. Due to allergies I brought my own lunch as usual, and then used the voucher to buy 5 chocolate bars to bring home for the kids. £1.20! For a chocolate bar. I was scandalised.

No! Ha! Public sector. Have to schlep in our own tea, coffee, milk every day (they took our lockers away to encourage ‘flexible working’, go figure). There is a small kitchen area but no tea towels, washing up liquid etc and the microwave broke months ago but replacement not approved as ‘not required for statutory service’. I’d love a canteen, even just as a place to catch up with people and have a blether in.

I used to work at m and s many years ago and they had a canteen for staff .meals we had to pay for but all very cheap .But we also had loads of freebies for tasting that where new so we could let customers know how they tested if they asked .
We also had a staff shop where we could buy food really cheaply either because food was coming up to date to be used or packaging damaged .

Our headquarters has a canteen. The food is very good and the prices are great. When I worked in that location I ate both breakfast and lunch there daily.

I work on a major NHS hospital site in London (though not for the NHS). There is no canteen at all. There is a commercial coffee shop in one of the hospital buildings, and that’s it. The coffee shop does serve a hot meal every lunchtime but there’s only a choice of 2 dishes IIRC, and the coffee shop is tiny so only a small fraction of the staff on site can have lunch there. It’s also open to the public so there isn’t much space for staff and queues can be very long.

The coffee shop is only open during normal trading hours so there is nothing whatsoever for hospital staff working evenings and nights. They don’t have staff rooms or kitchens on the wards either. The only provision is a snack vending machine!

I’ve had numerous people not believe me, because they can’t believe that NHS workers aren’t provided with somewhere to get food and drink. A lot of people think that all hospitals must have subsided canteens.

Nope

Worked at m and s years ago, in the packaging dept, they did, it was awesome

All marks' grub

For a couple of years when our office closed and we were relocated to head office we did. Fantastic canteen, subsidised brilliant choices, good breakfast and lunch options that changed daily and reflected the seasonal availability. I only went in once a week but it felt like such a treat eating there.
now we have a newly opened office again and no canteen 😭

I used to work in the offices of a massive factory, and we had a huge canteen. The food was really good and very reasonably priced. This was in the 80's though, no idea if the canteen is still there.

Currently have a fridge, toaster and microwave with a selection of free items you help yourself to like noodles, toast and soup.
Previously have had a work canteens and agree they are important to staff morale and cheap too!
I've even worked in places with no break room and lunch was taken alone in your car, that's no fun, especially in the cold.

Yes we have an excellent restaurant with a hot lunch for £4.25, a salad bar, home made soup, baked potatoes, hot and cold sandwiches etc. You can also buy cooked breakfast but porridge, yoghurt & granola and toast with peanut butter, jam, honey or marmite are free. The coffee is very good and cheap and they do home made cake in the afternoon. Free bean to cup coffee, teas, dairy and plant milk in the office kitchens and fruit every day.

Where are all these tech jobs with free canteens? I've never had that!

So jealous

Public sector so we have a kettle and a microwave

No, but there’s a cafe (university). There used to be a canteen and it was apparently subsidised for staff but it closed during covid just before I arrived. We can still order meals through the cafe for pick up at lunch. The food is decent..sandwiches, salads, pasta etc, but I can walk five minutes off campus to an old fashioned deli in Rome for the same sandwich or bowl of pasta but fresher, better filled and cheaper. I only go near the cafe for my morning coffee, mainly because there is a very generous/flirtatious barista who never lets me pay!

No, unfortunately we only have microwaves😅

Yes we have a canteen. The food is ok, mainly things like jacket potatoes, sandwiches, panini etc and breakfast rolls. The portion sizes are generous for the price.